The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - November 15, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy folks, today is Friday, November 15, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, the case of death row inmate Robert Roberson, which received increased attention due to Texas lawmakers successfully delaying Roberson's execution, has received another update, this time from the Texas Supreme Court. Different factions within the Texas House of Representatives have taken opposing sides on the issue, with a coalition of members including Representatives Joe Moody, Jeff Leach, Radha Bowers, and Lacey Hull issuing a subpoena for him to appear at a committee hearing to delay his scheduled October 17th execution. The subpoena, an unprecedented

Starting point is 00:00:51 legal maneuver, did not succeed in getting Roberson to appear to testify, but did bring about the larger separation of powers question within the three branches of the Texas government. An opinion from Justice Evan Young explains that there is still enough time between now and any possible future rescheduling of Roberson's execution for the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee to gather his testimony if needed. Next, a group of states is suing the Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming the commission is overstepping its authority in regulating digital assets like cryptocurrencies, arguing that the SEC's actions stifle state-level innovation and impose federal control without congressional approval. Eighteen state attorneys general have joined the lawsuit, one of which is

Starting point is 00:01:36 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in addition to DeFi Education Fund, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group. Along with naming the SEC directly in the complaint, it also lists SEC Chair Gary Gensler, among other officials. The states want the court to stop the SEC from enforcing regulations and allow them to manage digital assets with their own laws. The suit states, quote, the SEC's sweeping assertion of regulatory jurisdiction is untenable. The digital assets implicated here are just that, assets, not investment contracts covered by federal securities laws. In other news, in what some residents see as a replay of 2022, the outcome of at least one Harris County election has flipped from the Republican to the Democratic column due to

Starting point is 00:02:23 ballots counted one week after the close of the 2024 general election. As of Thursday night, the Harris County Elections Division showed that Republican Michael Landrum had defeated Democrat Nicole Perdue for the 133rd District Court by 1,251 votes out of more than 1.45 million counted. However, sources involved with the count say that provisional ballots cast during early voting and on election day went heavily in favor of Perdue. In addition, ballots by mail, including those from overseas military voters,

Starting point is 00:02:56 favored the Democrat. Altogether, the new ballots counted more than one week after the election placed Perdue ahead by 774 votes. Under Texas code, overseas ballots that arrive within five business days after general election day may be counted if they are placed in the mail by 7 p.m. on election day. According to the Texas Secretary of State's advisory, that deadline was Tuesday, November 12th. Perdue won the total ballot-by-mail count with just under 35,000 votes to almost 20,000 for Landrum. Last but not least, a real estate developer who bribed two Dallas City council members to support his low-income housing project pleaded guilty to the bribery this week.

Starting point is 00:03:39 Sherman Roberts, who led the citywide Community Development Corporation, was indicted four years ago for a bribery scheme involving former Mayor Pro Tem Dwayne Carraway and former city council member Carolyn Davis for their support of loans and low-income housing tax credits for his apartment projects. He now faces up to five years in prison and is expected to be sentenced in March. Roberts paid Davis several thousand dollars in cash and promised future payments after her counsel tenure ended in return for Davis's support of his projects, Serenity Place, Runyon Springs, and Patriots Crossing, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan,

Starting point is 00:04:22 please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - November 15, 2024

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